I love food, cooking, taking pictures of said cooking, and dining out. I'm a mom of two little people under 3 and one giant dog. I work fulltime, do crossfit, and spend way too much time thinking about fermenting things and what to make for dinner.

It was good. Mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, chopped up hard-boiled egg, blue cheese, avocado, chicken, and bacon. The dressing was a light vinaigrette with balsamic. The chicken was a tiny bit bland and I could have done without the bacon. All in all, I ate the whole thing, but I'm pretty sure I make more interesting salads at home every night. (yawn)

As this blog evolves into more than what I just make at home, I think I'm going to start including all kinds of food--food I have at really nice places, at really cheap places, food I make at home by using the microwave, what I think about food in general, etc. To start things off, a few weeks ago the husband and I went to the Cliff House in San Francisco with my visiting parents. It was pricey and mostly non-disappointing. But. I wish I would stop trying to order fish stews (and all varieties thereof)--I never like them and I keep trying (excuse the Hipstamatic iPhone fun):

This was smoked trout and arugula. It was heavenly:

The oysters on the halfshell. Kumamotos. Never disappointing, every delicious bite. And yes, when I finished, I chugged the vinegar:

Heirloom tomato and mushroom appetizer. It was good but it was trying too hard:

This was actually my favorite item (ok, second to the oysters), which is saying a lot, considering I am not a sweets/dessert person. It was a lemony creamy little cake thing with berries and a perfect non-too-sweet sauce:

This picture came out so glossy looking, which makes me giggle because that means it was REALLY coated in butter. The husband loves throw together pastas, and it's an easy way for me to force us to eat more vegetables. This was a good throw together of bowtie pasta, broccoli heads, shrimp, garlic, and butter. I just sauteed the garlic and butter for awhile, threw in frozen pre-cooked shrimp (thawed under water first), and then the broccoli heads until everything was warm and soft. Tossed that into the bowties, also mixed in with butter and some shaved asiago cheese. Thirds were had.

I eat too much pasta. I actually haven't been craving it much at all since I've been pregnant, which has been awesome and has made me think. I eat too much of the stuff. The white version of it, too many servings at once of it, and it does no good. I don't feel good after, I just feel like I'm in a coma after. And that can be accomplished much easier with a glass of wine/scotch/brandy/vodka (post baby of course) and with much more fun and fewer calories.

I love open-faced sandwiches. Could be the Swedish in me, but I LOVE them. I've never been a big meat eater, but I've always been partial to really well done open faced sandwiches. Closed-face you ask? Pass. I don't know. Anyway, here's one of my favorites:

This was sourdough bread, lightly toasted (very lightly), a smear of butter, horseradish, and dijon mustard on both sides, a few slices of black forest ham (I like Boar's head), sliced tomato, sliced onion, a few capers, salt and pepper. Back in the day I used to like to add a little Lawry's seasoning salt. Guilty. A hard-boiled egg on the side, of course. This is seriously so delicious and satisfying and such a better breakfast than cereal or plain toast.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Here, I took a bag of mustard greens (from Trader Joe's, with the boring old bagged lettuces) and simmered them with a little garlic, oil, and water (chicken broth would have been better but I'm not gonna lie to you, dearest reader). Kept them simmering while I cooked the rest.

Boiled the quinoa per instructions. Usually I doctor it up while cooking with onions, garlic, spices, chicken broth, but not this time--I thought the toppings would be enough.

Then, I took shrimp, and added a ton of butter, white wine, onions, garlic, and fresh chopped tomatoes. Cooked them up fast and quick on a high heat. Then I threw in more butter. Then I kind of laughed to myself like a maniac.

Plated the shrimp stuff on top of the quinoa, added to the greens. Thumbs up were had all around.

I thought this might be a good time to include a picture of my previously mentioned shredded-and-salted-cabbage-in-a-dish:

It's a thing of beauty. It may be the Polish in me. But this is one shredded head that I can dip into all week for added crunch to salads, stir-fries, or, to shove into my mouth with my hand in the middle of the night when I get hungry. Hey, it beats binging on pie.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of this one. I was trying to impress the hubby one night, with my mad veggie and greenery skills. I was also trying to act French. I served this for the both of us on one large platter and we dug in like savages, swilling our Sauvignon Blanc on the side:

There it is in all its glory. We have:

Red leaf lettuce, hand torn and placed on the bottom
Chopped up and sliced hard boiled eggs
Chopped hearts of palm
Blanched asparagus stalks
Tuna slices--and not just any tuna. This was hand caught tuna, home-jarred by hubby's dad. You may not all be able to get your hands on such treasures, so store bought will work.
Capers

Dressing was a dijon and oil and lemon and salt and pepper concoction.

Upon reflection, this may not exactly have been a true nicoise, but it was heavenly. I remember going at this with our bare hands.

Well! I guess you could say I've slacked. I have no excuses, and piles of pictures (figuratively speaking) sitting around needing to be posted. I've been busy, what with getting engaged, married, buying a house, and getting pregnant since my last post. Hurray!

But moving on, I'm going to try to post and go through a lot of pictures I have laying around here. While I promise to do better with exact recipes in the future, the following are mostly going to be a picture-heavy catalog of some of the stuff I cooked and took pictures of over the last few months. There have been a lot of salads as of late, so I think this baby might be a rabbit. Or just like healthy food.

Here we go to get started! I give you, Salami/Tomato/Lettuce sandwich on Rye!

Not sure a recipe would be necessary, but this baby was literally just: